As crews continue to fight the McKinney fire, one of the crews helping with the mop-up of the fire is a Medford family who are all wildland firefighters working together on the frontline.

The Contreras Family make up the Ponderosa Wildland Firefighters and are a 20-person hand crew, with the majority being men except for two of their sisters, an aunt, and a cousin.

“This is a whole family crew, they are my cousins, my dad is the crew boss and my brothers are the spear bosses, and my brother-in-law too,” said wildland firefighter, Yesenia Contreras.

The 20-year-old said this is her second season working alongside her family as a wildland firefighter and she would not change a thing.

Last year, she said the crews worked on the Bootleg Fire in Klamath County and although the work was hard, it has been a rewarding experience.

Contreras said her father has been a wildland firefighter for 20 years and following in his footsteps has been a dream come true.

24-year-old cousin, Esperanza Valencia, said she is also in her second season as a wildland firefighter working beside her family. She said the experience has brought her closer to her family.

“I am content because I am working with another part of my family who I didn’t know that well because we would only see each other once in a while for family gatherings, but I never worked with them until last year and it feels good,” Valencia said.

Valencia’s cousin, 20-year-old Paola Martin Contreras, is the newest member of the Ponderosa hand-crew, after recently getting certified to be a wildland firefighter.

For Martin Contreras, working on the front line with family is a blessing that also comes with some anxiety.

“It’s nice, but it can be scary because if something bad happens to one of my family members I would see it, I think it would be harder to see it happen than to not see what happens to them and just wonder if they are okay,” Martin Contreras said. “But there are a lot of safety precautions and I know we will be okay.”

The wildland firefighting family from Medford could stay up to two weeks fighting the fire, it all depends on the fire's behavior and when crews can fully contain it.

The cause of the McKinney fire is still under investigation.